1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to computer software utilities for managing settings and files. More specifically, this invention relates to methods and systems for managing the migration of a user's settings and files from one computer system to another.
2. Description of Related Art
A variety of computer migration tools have been described and may be in use. However, these tools generally do not have any effective way of insuring a full migration of a user's specific settings and files. Rather the user must have a substantial knowledge of the files and settings in order to guarantee a complete migration. Since few users have such knowledge, the migration of settings and files from one computer to another is at best problematic and at worst doomed to create errors and possibly failure.
The reader is referred to the following U.S. Patent documents for general background material. Each of these patents is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety for the material contained therein.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,199,204 describes a method and mechanism for automating updating of computer programs.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,269,382 describes a system and method for hierarchical storage management.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,304,895 describes a method and system for remotely accessing and controlling at least one of a target switch and a target computer using a target controller.
U.S. Pat. No. RE 37,418 describes a method and system for providing synchronizing of the timing of various multimedia events, including a visual event.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,324,543 describes a method and system which allows programs to become dynamically reconfigurable without programmer intervention.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,345,311 describes a method and system which in an object-oriented computer system, objects that execute in different, heterogeneous execution environments.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,347,398 describes a method and system to automatically locate, download, verify, install, register and display computer software components from a computer network like the Internet or an intranet.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,367,077 describes a method for upgrading a software application from a prior version to a subsequent version while preserving user modifications to the prior application.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,370,646 describes a method and system for migrating a computing environment from a source computing platform to a destination computing platform.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,370,682 describes a system and method for the re-use and platform independence of application software that is achieved by using component types comprising an interface and a body.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,377,962 describes a system for connecting a video object to various multimedia objects to enable an object-oriented simulation of a multimedia presentation using a computer with a storage and a display.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,377,991 describes a method, computer program product, and system for migrating URL data objects in a proxy server array when an array member is removed, added, or temporarily unavailable.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,389,451 describes a distributed digital rule processor used to create a single system image (SSI) on a cluster of von Neumann processors.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,389,538 describes a system for tracking usage of digital content on user devices.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,389,592 describes a method for updating a first version of installed application files to a second version.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,393,459 describes a method for creating a process in a multicomputer system that includes interconnected multiple sites.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,393,516 describes a system and method for storage medium group parity protection that stores data files and related parity information asynchronously on an array of storage media.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,393,537 describes a storage and host controller managed outboard data management tool, wherein the host controller defines logical paths between various storage controllers and data storage devices, and the storage controller manages the movement of data to and from the various data storage devices while only sending data to the host processing if necessary.